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For our 11-year anniversary, we asked Ones To Watch alumni to nominate the next wave of artists on the rise. Beloved Pittsburgh singer-songwriter corook chose Whale Songz—the musical duo of Olivia Barton and Annika Bennett.

Whale Songz is the lovechild of two best friends who write contemplative, harmonious, and skillfully woven folk songs. Having already established solo careers during what is one of the hardest times to be an artist, both Olivia and Annika vowed to make this group a place where they could reclaim their relationship with music. They’re decidedly avoiding managers, booking agents, labels, and producers – yes, they self-produced each of their 5 song EPs – and have already amassed hundreds of thousands of streams. It makes sense: once you’ve hit play on Whale Songz, you’re exposed to some of the tightest harmonies ever to be recorded. And those records will effortlessly float in your subconscious for the rest of the day like your favorite perfume.  

What follows is an animated conversation between three best friends – two of whom are married, by the way – about co-writing, creative freedom, perfect sleepovers, unlimited budgets, and learning to actually enjoy the life you’ve worked so hard to build.

Pure, queer, musical joy. Please enjoy.

Whale Songz: Okay, first question.

corook: Wait. Let's introduce ourselves.

Olivia: Okay. Who are you? 

I'm corook, and I'm here with my friends that are whale songs.

O: Okay, so I'm Olivia - I'm Annika - [in broken unison] and together we are whale songs.

First question. What is your relationship to co-writing? I know you guys do it, obviously. The whole project is formed from doing that. So, what is that like for you guys? 

O: Annika and I have super different relationships to co-writing separately from each other. I have done very little co-writing. I mostly write by myself. And Annika, what do you do?

Annika: For my own artist project, I write by myself. But then for my other half of my career, I write with other artists. So I think, like, when I co-write with other artists, it's so much different than co-writing with Olivia, because I think I, like, leave more myself out, but when we write together, I'm, like, bringing my whole heart. 

That makes sense. What is it like whenever you, like, get in the room together? Like, how do you start, usually?

O: We hang out for 90% of the co-write…I hate doing that with strangers. But with you, we would be hanging out anyways. And I think the nature of the songs that we write is like we hang out for four hours and then we write for two hours about the four hours that we just had. So it's like very, very present. 

A: The other funny thing is we've only written seven songs, eight songs, whatever the fuck. Isn't that crazy? Like we've put out everything we've ever written together. 

O: I have thought about that so much because of how many songs I've written that I've never put out. I'm kind of like, why do we have the audacity to do that? To think that [in unison] every song — yeah, exactly. Haha yeah.

A: What's your relationship to co-writing?

I actually think that mine's actually really similar, but that I do it with different people all the time. And this past EP, I happened to find two people to do it with all the time and that feels really special and different and more like maybe what you guys are doing. 

A: And from the one session we did together it was so sick how present it is…it's like so nice when you don't have to prove to people that you're a good writer. 

*laughter* 

Totally all the time. I think that that's part of what I'm really enjoying about co-writing lately…like really narrowing in on a certain group of people that I just really get along with, which are Kevin and James. And like each session getting to dig deeper with each other, which I imagine you guys get to do a lot of the time because you only do it with each other for this project. 

O: What's something you've learned as an artist in the past year that you would tell your younger self, Corinne? I know you've learned a lot in the last three years especially, but even in the last year, I feel like you're learning the same lessons all over again in a deeper way. 

Yeah. I think that the biggest lesson I've learned is that people are going to hate you no matter what, so you might as well be yourself. I mean that in a positive way. It literally doesn't matter – you can't control what other people think of you and I wish that I had learned that sooner so that I could have been myself longer, as like a queer non-binary person that was closeted for most of my life.

What about you guys?

A: I think I've just learned that it's supposed to be fun. That's something I'm still proving to myself that I can follow the fun and trust my own sense of what I do and don't want to do and that things will be okay. I just have felt so much pressure on myself the whole time. I think it feels really precious because it's something that I care so much about – making music and how it's perceived – but if I'm not loosening up and allowing myself to have fun, I've just gotten to a point where there's no point in doing it. Like, I've kind of taken that road to a dead end. 

Yeah, I think I'm realizing that same exact thing.

O: In this moment, all I really want to say is that I wish I could tell her that she's going to get to do it. It just was so...I had no idea how I could build a life around it. Maybe that's the thing that I'm learning in the last year. I am already doing it. One of the greatest pains in my career is this idea that I'm waiting for it to happen. I'm waiting to have a career. And I just was thinking like – I know this sounds kind of cliche — but anything could happen tomorrow. I could lose my vocal cords and the whole time I was waiting for my career to start and that was it. It happened. 

A: Outside of music, what is something you're secretly really good at?

I'm really good at Rubik's Cubes. I can solve like a 7x7 cube. So there's 49 pieces on it. 

A: What the hell? Do you know how to juggle too? 

I do know how to juggle, yeah. I love pointless activities.

O: What's something that Whale Songz is good at that nobody knows? 

A: Joking around…

*laughter* 

O: We're really good at sleepovers…super power! 

A: There is an art to it 

Especially when you're older, most people don't have them anymore 

O: Let's describe the perfect sleepover 

Am I invited?  

[in unison] yeah yeah

A: Okay so you start like late afternoon, right before dinner but you also have nothing really going on the next day. 

O: Oh, definitely. Preferably 24 hours. You can't be rushing there or rushing home. That is

100% necessary. 

A: You cook dinner together. 

O: That's your talking, catching up portion. At the whale song sleepovers Olivia is the cook and Annika's the sous chef. There's definitely going to be dessert; it could be as simple as an oreo, could be as elaborate as…

A: Brown butter burnt sugar crisp cookies. With a kiss on top. 

O: Absolutely required cuddling. Platonic cuddling.  

A: And then the next morning it's really fun if you have like a coffee place that’s walking distance…you like let the day be really slow and fun

O: Yeah no rushing, no rush. 

Okay, new question. If you had unlimited funding and could create any music video, album, live show, tour, etc., what would it be? 

A: I think that we would first of all take a huge vacation.

I personally like this because I’m married to one of the Whale Songz 

A: Take a huge vacation and I'm talking like house in the Italian countryside for like two to three months. We invite a bunch of friends to come and go as they please. Corinne, obviously you're there the whole time if your schedule allows. And since we have unlimited funding, we can buy your time. And so we just get so much time to write and hang and all that stuff. We can like meet some local musicians. And then we get like a really sick engineer to come in like while we're sleeping or like we're out of the house.  

O: A Santa Claus of engineers. We get a hired engineer to come down the chimney in the middle of the night and set up a really sick whole recording space…and then we have people over and we record like a really fun live album in our big vacation house…and then um and then we still have money left over so we ordered pizza. I concur on all levels – but I’m gonna add one thing. We make a music video on a yacht. But it's just a bunch of, like, queers and broke musicians.

Yeah. Gays take capitalism. 

O: Okay, no. For real, what's yours?

I would totally buy stock in that.  

O: So if you had unlimited funding, you would buy stock in Whale Songz because we have unlimited funding. 

And then get more funding off of my unlimited funding that is funding your unlimited funding, and then we could just all be unlimited funds forever. 

*laughter*

O: I'm actually really interested to hear what you would do creatively, I feel like you have gigantic aspirations.  

I think that I would go on an incredibly large world tour with animatronics on stage.

A: That's not what I was thinking. 

O: You could have said anything else. 

A: Like robots?

They wouldn't be sentient in any way. Like, they're just MIDI-controlled fuzzy creatures mixed with, like, theatrical lighting. 

O: What a great idea. 

And you guys would be there, obviously, because I'd have unlimited funding. 

A: Okay next question…I know that you've been signed to a major label for a while, yet your approach is, like, so DIY. I'm genuinely curious what the process of reclaiming your DIY-ness has been like? Because I know peripherally that getting signed can take you away from your own sense of agency, but I feel like I've observed you really taking it back. 

I think that the landscape of the music industry has changed so much since I got signed that I think the artists have far more power than they ever have. So it's been kind of just a necessity to reclaim it. And it just so happens that I also enjoy it that way. Like, I really enjoy being the creative person behind all the decisions. And I also find that it all performs better and is received better whenever it's coming from me. 

O: Yeah, I get that. Has it been hard in any way?

Yeah, I think it's been difficult to understand roles on the team more. Like, who does what. Because I don't think that everybody is necessarily clued into everything all the time. I feel like social media has such a big pull now that honestly, that puts a lot of marbles on my plate. You know what I mean? That's a lot of my marbles. So it makes it difficult to outsource anything, really. It ultimately comes down to me and it feels inauthentic when it's not and I don't like that and neither do the fans. It's just difficult because it's a lot of fucking work haha. 

A: yeah and I would imagine that part of like the allure of signing to a major label is probably all the things they can do for you – the idea that you just get to focus on the music now and then it's like whoops. 

Yeah whoops, that was 20 years ago.

A: I have a wild card question too: what is our favorite moment of the other one's music and can I say mine? I think I told you this the other day but in ‘how do I relate to you’ – the verse going into the chorus: (sings) ‘what do I do….’ it feels like i finally got all my earwax out or something. That moment is euphoric. 

That's a really big compliment. Thank you. My favorite of Whale Songz is the first time you sing, “why do I want my life to change? If it does, I'm just going to miss you.” That's just so fucked up. It's like so good. 

O: What does that line mean to you?

It means I have everything I want right in front of me. Yeah. Why don't I see it? All right. Well, that's the interview. Okay. Wait, I want to give some context: We are currently in our backyard. Olivia's in the pool.

A: In a pink one piece. 

O: And I'm ripping apart a leaf. And [Annika] and I are in our suits sitting.

A: I'm in a cheetah print bikini trying to get slug juice out of my dog's fur. 

Perfect.

O: And Corinne is bright as ever. Red hair, blowing in the wind. Freckles.

Listen to Whale Songz below: